ABSTRACT
The earliest tradition of empirical research and theoretical reflection upon subcultures developed among the Chicago School, who were noted for interpreting subcultures as mainly forms of deviance, that is transgression of social norms, and more specifically of delinquency, or transgression of legal norms. An equally important aspect of the analyses developed by the Chicago scholars was the relationship between values and models shared within a subculture and those more widespread through society at large, insofar as in most of the research they carried out, the otherness of subcultures was generally marked by deviance and illegality. This chapter reconstructs a synthetic framework of this interpretation of subcultures, at the heart of which may situate the idea of social forms which develop principally through lacking or limited socialization of some sectors of the population towards predominant cultural models and, in tandem, through their search for opinion and action models both alternative to those and compatible with the resources they have available.
